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(Photo by Brandon Vallance\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
It isn’t easy being a San Diego sports fan. San Diegans lost their NFL franchise in 2017 when the Chargers bolted for Los Angeles, with the Chargers’ sole national championship coming in 1963, prior to the Super Bowl era. Their MLB team, the Padres, lost in both of their World Series appearances in 1984 and 1998, and they have fallen short in the playoffs in three of the last four seasons.<\/p>\n
However, San Diego is finding some joy in both men’s and women’s soccer: the Wave won the 2023 NWSL Shield in their second season, given to the best regular-season record in the NWSL. And San Diego FC finished with the best record in the Western Conference<\/a> (fourth overall in MLS) in their inaugural MLS season in 2025, before losing to the Vancouver Whitecaps<\/a> in the Western Conference final.<\/p>\n “The Wave and the Padres are pretty popular, but to go back to the binational nature of our community, the passion for football here is unmatched anywhere. I think it’s that combination of, ‘Yes, there’s no NFL team right now, I’m well aware of the Chargers legacy in history,’ but there’s a huge opportunity for this to be the city’s professional football team, in every sense of the word,” San Diego FC Executive Vice President Jeff Cook said in an exclusive RG interview. “When you consider the growth of the game, the impact that will last from the World Cup. I saw an article today from The Wall Street Journal about how there hasn’t been this league-wide post-World Cup bounce in ticket sales that some people were predicting, and I think that there’s a deeper level to that, in my opinion, of fan engagement to the young community that’s there.”<\/p>\n “This is a football city; there’s no doubt about it. When people come to Snapdragon Stadium and see the atmosphere, the stadium has great sightlines, and our supporters group that’s in one end sings the entire game. It’s an amazing atmosphere for football. We’re still growing in the initial phases, but I’m so excited about what this can become. There’s a door open because we don’t have an NFL or NBA team, but it’s our job to create that environment in our stadium that people just want to be a part of, and we’re well on the way to doing that.”<\/p>\n From Cincinnati to Philadelphia to Happy Valley<\/p>\n Cook got his first big break in 1996 after being hired as the head coach at the University of Cincinnati, leading the Bearcats to their first NCAA Tournament appearance and highest ranking. He then returned to his native New England and led Dartmouth to five Ivy League championships and seven NCAA Tournament appearances, before taking a position with the Philadelphia Union’s youth academy. Cook spent five years in the City of Brotherly Love before heading to Happy Valley, overseeing a 66-49-23 record during his time with the Penn State Nittany Lions.<\/p>\n After 12 years in Pennsylvania, Cook decided to head west in January, taking a position at San Diego FC as head of academy. He already helped build one of the best academies in MLS in Philadelphia, one that has given rise to various USMNT internationals like Cavan Sullivan, Brenden and Paxten Aaronson, Mark McKenzie, Neil Pierre, Jack McGlynn, Matt Freese, Zack Steffen and Auston Trusty, and now, he’s looking to achieve that same feat in California. It’s the kind of long-term project that online sportsbooks<\/a> rarely price into futures markets, but one that could define the club’s next decade.<\/p>\n Lessons from the Union’s Academy<\/p>\n “I would give a lot of credit to Richie Graham and the Graham family: they were one of the first ones to invest in the school, so that was very unique. There is residency, as you know, but it’s a little different; it’s not fully residential,” Cook says of his time with Philadelphia. “But the club and the Grahams made a commitment in 2013 when it wasn’t known what could be possible, and if I look back to that, that vision deserves a lot of credit. I think that is an indicator that the commitment to school and football is important, as well as character. One thing that Major League Soccer itself and we are thinking about is that phase from 16 to 19 years old, when you’re transitioning out of normal academy toward the adult game. Is MLS NEXT Pro the correct pathway?”<\/p>\n “When I was at the end of my time in Philly, in my last two years, I was on the coaching staff for Bethlehem Steel, in addition to being the U-19 head coach. Brenden Aaronson, Mark McKenzie, Auston Trusty, Matthew Real, Anthony Fontana, all these guys that became pros and got their first opportunity in a real competitive USL Championship level. My learning from that, and I’m speaking personally here, is that exposure to adult football in that transition phase is critically important. I don’t know enough about MLS NEXT Pro specifically, because I was at Penn State by the time the second team transitioned out of USL Championship and MLS NEXT Pro became its league, but I know the league is thinking about that and trying to figure it out. I think that particular moment for a player of that transition part is fundamental, and that’s the lesson I take away from Philly. The commitment of ownership that you have to have, and then you have to have a really detailed and robust plan from the transition to academy to first-team football, and that’s been proven globally.”<\/p>\n A Boarding Academy Unlike Any Other in MLS<\/p>\n Cook is under no illusions that it’s going to take a while before San Diego can catch up to the likes of FC Dallas, the New York Red Bulls and Philadelphia in terms of youth production, but he’s already helping them build their reputation as the most unique academy in MLS. Unlike standard MLS academies where local kids commute to training while attending public or private schools, San Diego FC operates a fully funded boarding academy. Situated just miles from the Mexican border on Sycuan tribal land, the academy naturally bridges two soccer cultures by recruiting local talent from Southern California and Tijuana, Mexico, creating a binational talent pool that is unprecedented in MLS. The academy is housed on the same 28-acre campus as the Sharp HealthCare Performance Center, where youth prospects live, study and train side by side with San Diego FC’s professional first team, giving academy players a direct, visible pathway to the professional ranks.<\/p>\n By removing financial barriers entirely, San Diego FC ensures that raw talent and drive, rather than a family’s socioeconomic status, determine who gets access to elite coaching, sports science and global scouting networks. Selected student-athletes receive complete scholarships covering elite soccer training, boarding and a dedicated private middle\/high school education under one roof. This is in line with the methodology of the Right to Dream academy, which, since its founding in Ghana in 1999, has expanded to Danish club FC Nordsj\u00e6lland, Egyptian club FC Masar and now San Diego FC. The Right to Dream philosophy emphasizes a holistic approach that places equal weight on character formation, personal purpose and academic achievement alongside elite athletic development. For fans tracking the first team’s progress on the best betting apps<\/a>, the academy is where the club’s future starting XI is being shaped.<\/p>\n Scouting for Character, Not Just Talent<\/p>\n “We kicked off our first talent ID center this month: there are 34 young prospects coming for the next generation. We do that monthly following the work of the scouts, and then in March, late March, early April, we’ll do a weeklong talent ID center camp for the finalists. There’ll be players cycling in and out of those processes and eventually get down to about 25 to 30 players to select maybe 10 or 12 for the opportunity to join us full time. The character assessment is part of that during the week, and it’s amazing how much you learn even though it’s only a weeklong camp. When you check in and you’re away from mom and dad or your family, your guardian for the very first time, it’s very common that character traits come out in that process. And one of the things we talk about, and it’s not ‘Good kid, average kid, poor kid,’ it’s ‘Is that young person at 12 years old ready for that kind of transition in life to the best of our ability? Are they developed at the right stage?'”<\/p>\n “I think part of the character experience is the multicultural nature of football. In terms of our first team, there are many languages you’ll hear in our building, Spanish, Arabic, English, Danish being spoken at regular intervals, and I think embracing that is really important. We do want our emphasis to be in our own homegrown territory, but the beauty of football, in my opinion, is its international nature. No matter where you come from or what your background is, there’s a place for you in the Right to Dream community if you are a good person. That’s one of the values that manager Mikey Varas talks about: the first thing is simply to be a good person. Assessing that when you’re talking about recruiting young players is challenging, but it is part of the evaluation process. We have five full-time scouts now and three part-time within our academy structure, and they go out and watch thousands of players in person.”<\/p>\n Living the Right to Dream Values<\/p>\n “Last year, we estimated that just over 6,000 players were watched at tournaments and games. Now, we’re not there ticking off ‘Good kid, bad kid’; it’s not like that. But what character traits are we recognizing? We have a full-time character development staff member, Brett Garner, and we have two character sessions a week where we try to bring to life the five Right to Dream values in very tangible ways. There’s a lot of focus around our values, and if you were to come to campus, you would see it right away because all the players would come up and shake your hand and look you in the eye. Integrity is one of our values, teamwork, diversity … we celebrate these things, but we’re very, very intentional. It’s part of our curriculum in the character space.”<\/p>\n